The
Man Who Did It All
There
wasn't much that Dennis P. McHugh, 34, couldn't do. He ran the
New York City Marathon, played Gaelic football, married the beautiful
Una Hinchcliffe and became the proud father of Chloe, 5, and Sophie
and Joseph, who both turned 1 last week. When he became a firefighter
with Ladder Company 13 three years ago, "he was about as perfect
as you can get," said his friend Chris Gainer, who graduated from
the Fire Academy with him and, in longstanding firehouse tradition,
became "the bad probie" while Mr. McHugh was "the good probie."
On summer mornings at the family place in Montauk, Mr. McHugh's
brothers-in-law would wake up and rush to the window, "to see
if he'd done all the chores," said Rob Hinchcliffe. "By the time
we'd woken up at 11 o'clock, this guy had already painted the
house and mowed the lawn. It was an ongoing joke. Dennis always
made us look bad as sons." For the twins' birthday, Mrs. McHugh
asked everyone in the family to write down their memories of her
husband. She has created a Web site, www.nyfdwidows.net, listing
information about books and other ways to cope with loss, as another
tribute to him. "He was always so optimistic," she said. "He always
saw the glass as half full." Profile published in THE NEW YORK
TIMES on November 14, 2001.
Back
to Dennis' Home Page